Woo Hoo! My son and his friend finally bought their airline tickets, so I guess it's official. I'm taking my one week long trip this year and heading to the Cascades. Flying into Seattle on 8/24 - head home on Labor Day. Plan on spending Sunday - Thursday in North Cascades National Park. At the end of the trip on Saturday and Sunday I'll be out solo, most likely in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Nothing technical planned - just a bunch of dayhikes (with hopefully some scrambling thrown in).

Sun-Mon up in the Mount Baker Highway areaTues-Thurs base camping out of NewhalemSat- Sun working out of Salmon la Sac

Thanks to Adam and Matt (and SP), I pretty much have the list of hikes/summits I want to go after, with plenty of alternates (as I always seem to change some plans at the last minute ).

No real question to post for now, but I'm sure between now and August I'll have a few...and I'll probably just post them here. This will be my first trip to the Cascades and I am really looking forward to it!

Current plan out of Salmon la Sac is Chikamin Peak and Mount Daniel. Any other recommendations are always welcome. Just looking for beautiful approaches and summit views - and Class 3 tops. Thanks!

Those are two great peaks in the Salmon La Sac area. Daniel is probably the most beautiful mountain in the area, with a surprising amount of glacier ice on it, even though a lot has melted off. Chikamin is way cool too. To the east of Daniel across the valley, Granite and Trico Mountains are a beautiful destination. You go through Robin Lakes area, which is just a lovely area of high alpine lakes and granite slabs. Mainly Class 2, nothing higher than Class 3. Robin Lakes are called the "Little Enchantments." Summit Chief and Hinman are excellent scrambles too, but are more remote and would typically require a day just to get to base camp.

Daniel is good, I recommend the peggy's pond route in for ease, if not necessarily a short approach... it took me all day but I did it in a long day, if you're in great shape it may take less time, but keep in mind that was when I was 19 or 20... I wouldn't bet on doing it myself in one day, but it's well within possibility for sure, not even hard for some. The trail/route is good though, never really steep anywhere that I remember, just crossing some chossy/crumbly/sandy gullies on class 2 terrain that gave me a bit of vertigo looking down, so if you are deathly afraid of falling or don't like exposure, I would not recommend it.

The top is certainly worth the effort though, as you get views for miles around in every direction- Daniel is the highest peak for a ways (the Summit Chief group may be higher and Stuart def. is) and has pretty stunning prominence in most directions, even though it's not terribly steep. Hinman is cool to see from above, even though lots of the glacier ice is quickly melting there, like everywhere else. On the upshot, you can see miles of glacier-scoured upland that has literally just been uncovered and is still interspersed with glacier, which is pretty interesting. Also the glaciers on the mountain itself are nice, although not very epic, so if you want a little glacier travel the glacier routes are worth looking at.

Cathedral Rock is one nearby that might be an alternative if you don't feel up to Daniel when you get to the saddle on the trail (before the turnoff to side trail to peggy's pond). I haven't done it, but my grandma has and said it was class 3, and have never heard of it being terribly hard. It's a lot shorter day, and you could still visit peggy's pond or one of the lakes in the valley below for some nice alpine lake action. Or there is The Citadel http://www.peakbagger.com/peak.aspx?pid=12395 which is kind of a sub-peak of Daniel, and may be class 3 or less. Becky has some info on it, and you can probably look up more online if something a little obscure rings your bell.

I recommend that area highly though, as you can tell by my enthusiasm. One of my favorite places in the state, although I haven't been all over by any means.

I think to say that Cathedral Rock or the Citadel is Class 3 is stretching it. For example, the Citadel might be technically Class 3 near the top, but it's exposed, loose crap that scares most people. It is rarely climbed. Cathedral Rock is a popular Class 4 rope climb for some beginners. Under no circumstances could it be considered Class 3. Even Beckey calls it Class 4, which means closer to low Class 5.

I did Daniel in a day via the Peggy's Pond route in my 40's, and if I did it, it can't be that hard. It was also enjoyable, so it's not that hard. The main thing to pay attention to in this area are the mosquitoes! I mean it. Bring lots of DEET. For some reason, and it may be all of the lakes, this area just has the nastiest mosquitoes. Biting flies are not an issue here like they are in the North Cascades. Once above Peggy's Pond they die down a bit. I also did Chikamin in a day, and that was a bitch. Mainly because the approach trail is so nasty (Mineral Creek Park). Daniel is the highest in the area (highest peak in King County, higher than the Summit Chief group). Luckily, it's also technically the easiest of the peaks.

I had a couple of thoughts for your time on the Mt Baker HWY. West Ridge of North Twin Sister is perhaps the best class three scrample in the area. The climbing is consistent and enjoyable, exciting but not expecially technical. Easily doable in a day.

The other thought is Mount Ruth, opposite Hannegan Pass from Hannegan Peak. This elegant glacier clad peak offers absolutely stunning views into the Nooksack and Price Glacier cirques of Mt Shuksan. You need an ice axe and crampons, but most folks do not rope up. The few crevasses will be open, obvious and easily avoided in August. A Corgi dog made the summit last time I was there, so it can't be that hard. The trip is probably more comfortable as a two day climb. I did it in conjunction with a traverse to Icy Peak (also very worthwhile, but the summit block requires a few 5th class moves and a rappel, so you may not want to do that) but there are bivi sites on top of Ruth for an amazing summit camping experience.

ExcitableBoy wrote:I had a couple of thoughts for your time on the Mt Baker HWY. West Ridge of North Twin Sister is perhaps the best class three scrample in the area. The climbing is consistent and enjoyable, exciting but not expecially technical. Easily doable in a day.

The other thought is Mount Ruth, opposite Hannegan Pass from Hannegan Peak. This elegant glacier clad peak offers absolutely stunning views into the Nooksack and Price Glacier cirques of Mt Shuksan. You need an ice axe and crampons, but most folks do not rope up. The few crevasses will be open, obvious and easily avoided in August. A Corgi dog made the summit last time I was there, so it can't be that hard. The trip is probably more comfortable as a two day climb. I did it in conjunction with a traverse to Icy Peak (also very worthwhile, but the summit block requires a few 5th class moves and a rappel, so you may not want to do that) but there are bivi sites on top of Ruth for an amazing summit camping experience.

EB -thanks for the feedback. Originally I had not planned on going all the way up to the Mt Baker Highway area just to try and avoid a lot of extra driving and moving about - but I changed my mind because for no other reason I want to get a really good view of Shuksan!

I am looking at Hannegan and Excelsior for now. I had wanted to try Ruth but due to a lack of good snow travel skills I figured I'd better pass - thus looked at hikes where I figure snow will be less of a concern. Also, my son and his friend who will be with me aren't real interested in acquiring any snow travel skills, which also has limited me. I do hope to meet up with a few other SPers who have offered to help me out on the snow thing! I do plan on investing in an ice axe between now and then.

Snidely Whiplash wrote:I think to say that Cathedral Rock or the Citadel is Class 3 is stretching it. For example, the Citadel might be technically Class 3 near the top, but it's exposed, loose crap that scares most people. It is rarely climbed. Cathedral Rock is a popular Class 4 rope climb for some beginners. Under no circumstances could it be considered Class 3. Even Beckey calls it Class 4, which means closer to low Class 5.

Thanks for clearing that up, I still haven't found my maps and Becky volumes after moving recently, or I would have looked those up to confirm that. I really thought I remembered Cathedral Rock as having a class 3 gully route, but I must have misremembered. I will have to ask my Grandma about it, and report back. I thought she said she did it, but maybe it was that she bailed because it was too sketchy, now that I'm thinking about it more. Either way, it's a grand sight from the trail past Squaw Lake when it reaches the ridge meadows... breathtaking, one of the first inspiring things I saw while renewing my interest in hiking a few years ago

Mark Didier wrote:EB -thanks for the feedback. Originally I had not planned on going all the way up to the Mt Baker Highway area just to try and avoid a lot of extra driving and moving about - but I changed my mind because for no other reason I want to get a really good view of Shuksan!

Yeah, I would really recommend doing it, it's really not THAT long-I have driven up from near Seattle, snowboarded for the whole day, and driven back in a long day-and it's an absolutely amazing place to hike. Ptarmigan Ridge is a really easy option which gets you good views of Shuksan and Baker, I enjoyed it. You can do Coleman Pinnacle easily within class 3, and I know this to be true this time because I have done this one I even went down a slightly-sketchy 4th class route on the south face, but lots of green belays made it managable